RAYMOND TOOTH

SEARS TOOTH

Raymond Tooth is a celebrity in his own right, whose hard-fought battles for the great and the good — and sometimes the not so good — have earned him the nickname ‘Jaws’. If Spear’s had been inclined to wonder whether age had mellowed him, the thought was quickly erased. Although Tooth is 77 years old and received a congratulatory certificate from the Law Society because he had achieved 50 years as a solicitor, his career remains full of enthusiasm and staying power. Tooth started out as a litigator, but after several cases including an action against the South African government during apartheid, he found his calling in family law. Tooth’s Mayfair outfit has remained lean since its inception: ‘You’re much more in control of your destiny,’ he says. He exhibits an impressive hunger for the law and refuses to rest on his laurels: ‘You’re only as good as your last case’, he says, pointing to a current matter where the assets are in the hundreds of millions. He also confides another lesson: ‘Never take a short-cut, or you will suffer.’ He remembers with pleasure one financial case which lasted eight weeks. He remarked to the client that she must be patient and remember the words of Confucius, the Chinese philosopher who said ‘if you wait by the banks of the river long enough, you will see the body of the enemy float by. That happened, but not literally.’